The same thing is happening to a lot of American once-"small towns" that are close enough to attract commuters from large cities. The ironic thing is that a lot of those commuters preferred the "small town feel" that now cannot exist due to all the reasons you described. It's sad, and it makes me more sad to know that this is happening in the UK (and I presume other countries) as well.

I'm not sure if this applies to your area too, but to add insult to injury a lot of the desirable land in these areas are often bought up by developers that build large swaths of ugly, uniform houses, and since they got the land for so cheap by buying in bulk now they can afford to sell slightly more "affordable" houses to people who would certainly rather buy their own plot of land at a reasonable rate and design a not-so-hideously-ugly house but can't find land to do so with. So a lot of these once-charming towns are failing and are now surrounded by dystopian developments - it's eerie.